Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof will not close its store in Leipzig after all. A company spokesman said Thursday that the department store will remain open because of further concessions from the landlord. The same applies to the stores in Bayreuth, Erlangen, Oldenburg and Rostock. The number of planned store closures at Germany's last major department store group is thus reduced to 47, while the number of continuing houses rises to 82.
Galeria had announced on Monday that it would close 52 of the 129 department stores that were last still open. Thousands of jobs are to be cut in the course of the ongoing insolvency proceedings. For the locations such as Leipzig there is "no positive continuation perspective in view of the economic framework conditions, the local conditions and also after intensive negotiations with landlords and cities," it said. The department stores in Chemnitz and Dresden, however, should remain.
In Leipzig should be end of June. There, the neighboring Karstadt department store on Petersstrasse had already been closed a few years ago. The city leadership reacted on Monday disappointed. To the latest development, Lord Mayor Burkhard Jung (SPD) wanted to make a statement in the afternoon in front of City Hall.
